@Looshkin- If you give me a chance to talk about my minis... chances are I'm gonna bite! lol
@Alienscar- No problem man. Yeah the comissions are never cheap. Less expensive perhaps, but never cheap. Thanks for the compliments on the minis, both the bikes and ruins. Glad you dig all the details... yep you nailed it too with the secure power lines and infrastructure etc. But only on certain buildings and not all the screens, powered bits will be operable. Anyway thanks Alienscar, appreciate your feedback!
@Everybody- BAT-REP TIME! This one is a doozy!
Eldar Vs. Imperial Guard 1500ptsImperial GuardCompany Command Squad- Vox, 3x Plasma
Primaris Psyker
Primaris Psyker
Primaris Psyker
Veteran Squad- 3x Plasma
Veteran Squad- 3x Plasma
Veteran Squad- 3x Melta
Ogryns x3
Minostorum Priest
Manticore
Wyvern
Leman Russ- Vanquisher, Multimeltas x2, Lascannon
Sentinels x2- Lascannons x2
EldarAutarch- Soulshrive, Banshee Mask, Fusion Gun
Windriders x3- Scatter Lasers x3
Dire Avengers x5
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields
Black Guardians x10
Black Storm Guardians x10- Flamers x2
Hornet- Pulse Lasers x2
-Aspect Host-
Fire Dragons x6- Exarch
Swooping Hawks x6- Exarch, Power Sword
Striking Scorpions x10- Exarch, Claw
-Corsair Allies-
Corsair Prince- Void Sabre, Shadowfield, Combat Drugs
Jetbikes x3
Mission/DeploymentHammer and Anvil, Crusade. My brother opted to deploy second and go first. I deploy only 2 Wave Serpents, opt to Outflank with the Hornet and Scorpions, with Black Guardians in deepstrike reserve. Everything else is normal reserve. My brother deployed the Vanquisher, with Melta Vets and the unit of Sentinels on the left flank facing my Dragons, with a complex arrangment of Vets in the middle supported by double Heavy Flamer chimera to block/protect against my 9" deepstrike restrictions on my Guardians. In the far right corner the he placed the Company Command Squad and the Manticore. Protecting the right Flank was a unit Ogryns with a Priest to nab any outflankers or Jetbikes trying to sneak toward side armor on his tanks.
There are 3 objectives in my backfield, 2 in no mans land but easily grabbed by my brother.
Turn 1Imperial Guard- The Vanquisher boldly rumbles forward with the Sentinels escorting to set up Multimelta shots later on. With that everything lets rip at the Wave Serpent containing the Fire Dragons. The Manticore, Vanquisher, Sentinels etc, doing only a single Hull Point after some good Night Fight Jink saves. The other Serpent goes ignored. With Hammer and Anvil and most of my stuff out of range or off the board its a quick turn! Some poor dice rolls my bro... not off to a good start.
Eldar- Trusting in my Jink+Holofield saves I move up 12" with my Fire Dragon Serpent in preparation for a normal move + disembarkation on the following turn. I didn't want to be too bold though and run the Serpent up the gut with those x3 Melta Vets in support of the Chimera + Sentinels (which could potentially charge). However I did turbo boost the other Serpen to a position approach the middle of the board wanting to start putting down some Scatter Laser and Shuriken Cannon fire into the side armor of some of the vehicles in the middle of the board (Wyvern and Chimera) so I could perhaps pull off some Guardian deepstrikes.
Turn 2Imperial Guard- Things heat up! The Manticore takes a HP off the Dragon's Serpent, the Vanquisher whiffs, but then... the humble Sentinels go to work and down the Serpent! Uh, oh... Autarch, Dragons and Corsair Prince are suddenly stranded mid-board... The Wyvern then unloads on them and takes out 3 of the Dragons with the Prince and Autarch passing their saves. A single hull point is then dished out on to the Avenger's Serpent and they lose their Shuriken Cannon... I'm starting to feel the pressure!
Eldar- Reserves are rolled.... Swooping Hawks, the Laser Bikes and the Scorpions come in... but not the Guardians nor the Hornet. I use my Autarch rolls to keep the naked Wind Riders off the board. The Corsair Prince splits off from the Dragons to try and hop into the Avengers Serpent so he can get up the board... also because he's preventing the Dragons from battle-focusing. Then... the Dragons and Autarch move/run into non-melta range, shoot the Vanquisher but dont do anything. The Hawks nuke 4 Vets in the back taking out 3x Plasma in the blast... shoot up the rest of the squad dropping them to 2 or 3 guys. The Scorpions outflank in support of the Hawks and get into area terrain. Not a good riposte by the Eldar... I'm feeling the pressure still!
Turn 3Imperial Guard- My bro knows he's got me on the ropes. But he also knows that in the middle turns... if I can make it into combat with any of his units total chaos can ensue... So he wisely goes after the Wave Serpent my Corsair Prince is attempting to embark on. Furthermore it removes an Objective Secured quick moving objective grabber from hiding out and jinking away on an objective late in game, when his big guns might by gone. He unloads and a combination of the Manticore and Vanquisher destroy the Wave Serpent. The Wyvern then unloads on the occupants, taking out the 3 of the Avengers who were able to string out quite well (I got super lucky there). Then the Vets and Company Command squad unload into the Hawks taking out all but 3 after some crazy armor saves by myself. He then tried o run the Chimera with x2 Heavy Flamers at my Scorpions but the it got immobilized going over an a rubble wall. That was tough way to end the turn.... All and all it was an ok turn, but not as punishing as he would have hoped.
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Eldar- While my brother's may not have been great... I knew I needed a very good turn or I was in deep trouble. Luckily the Guardians all came in along with my Hornet... it was very tricky deciding where to Deep Strike them, but I knew I needed to take out some high priority targets. #1 was the Wyvern... if I was gonna hold my objectives late in game, I couldn't have it dropping those ignore cover rounds on my Avengers... or stacking hits on my Jetbikes. So the Guardians and Storm Guardians attempted to pincer the middle my brothers army, with the remaining Hawks. The Scorpions were a touch behind, sort of trailing the action... but in range of assaulting the Chimera. So to begin with the Hawks leapt over a huge piece of terrain and threw a Haywire Grenade at the Wyvern stripping a Hull Point. Then the Hornet finished off the Wyvern but just barely as it was getting a cover save. The Storm Guardians battle-focused forward and took out a bunch of Vets trying to save the Hawks who were right in their cross-hairs taking out 5 of them. The Guardian Defenders than ran forward and took out a whole Veteran Squad with a good number of bladestorm hits. The Dragons who were far away... unloaded but shockingly only destroyed the Vanquisher Cannon after some dreadful rolls. Then the Scorpions assaulted the Chimera and destroyed it... while the Corsair Prince went to grab a backfield objective as did the remaining Avengers. This was a turning into a real maelstrom of a game with desperate actions being taken all over the battlefield
Turn 4Imperial Guard- With Eldar units currently swarming their position... the Guard needed to strike back and strike back hard! The Veterans and Company Command Squad annihilated the Guardian Defenders with First Rank, Second Rank, Fire! Then the Manticore unloaded its final shell on the Avengers making for the Objective killing all but 2... which thankfully held morale. It then split fire thanks to the Engine Seer killing 4 of the Stormies with its Heavy Bolter (very neat to see it fire that thing!) A nearby Veteran Squad fired off First Rank, Second Rank, Fire! Into the Scorpions dropping 4 of them. Meanwhile the freaking Sentinels blew up the Hornet! This is madness! The Sentinels were doing work! Crazily though another Veteran Squad unloaded into the Hornets and I made an ungodly amount of saves and even avoided a bunch of Plasma shots that saw the Swooping Hawk Exarch somehow survive this brutal turn. To cap off the turn 2 of the Primaris Psykers and the Engine Seer split off from their respective squads and each individually charged the Storm Guardians who were dangerous close to the Manticore and more importantly the Company Command Squad. The Storm Guardians went berserk and hacked down the Engine Seer and one of the Psykers, but remained stuck in combat with the last Psyker... This was going CRAZY!... and it seemed my brother was going to win!
Eldar- The Eldar were reeling... after that withering hail of fire. There were huge gaps in the Guard lines... but the units who inflicted those casualties were now long gone. Also the Scorpions were now horribly out of position... with 18"+ moves to get anywhere near a decent target... which were all mutually supported by various other units. I decided to hunker them down behind the wreck of the Chimera and be content with linebreaker. Meanwhile my remaining units scrambled towards objectives... with only the Jetbikes moving into reduce a Vet Squad to about 3 guys... and also the Dragons at least sinking their fangs into the Leman Russ destroying it and putting a wound on a Sentinel (damn you Sentinels!). Also... the lone Swooping Hawk Exarch went on a headhunting mission for Warlord. He flew over the battlefield and landed in front of the CC blasting into them with his lasblaster but to no effect... he charged in... and was slain to overwatch! No! But it was a glorious effort... Meanwhile... the Storm Guardians finished off the lone Primaris Pysker and were stranded in open.... Wow this game was truly becoming legendary. What a back and forth! My brother was so pumped and so was I.... this was shaping up into a great game!
Turn 5Imperial Guard- The IG were man-handling the Eldar... dealing vicious counter-punches to every attempt by the Xenos to take control of the center of the board. It was time to clear their lines and make for the objectives they needed to hold. So the Guardsmen who had been near the Dragons fell back fearing the wrath of the vengeful Autarch hot on their trail... and moved towards the center objective with a move and then Run! Run! Run! Meanwhile the Guardsmen nearest the Storm Guardians tried to move into position to get the Stormies before they made a bee-line after the Company Command squad which they had consolidated towards... But couldn't due to LOS blocking terrain. However the Company Command Squad decided to handle business themselves and blew away the blood-mad Storm Guardians. That was it... but it was then my brother realized I my Jetbikes were primed to go and steal the objective his Ogryns who had been hiding out of LOS the entire game were camping on. Objective Secured bikes were about to steal that objective... He needed the game to go to Turn 6 or he'd lose after such an excellently played game!
Eldar- Quick summary here... My Dragons nuked the remaining Sentinels and the Autarch killed the Primaris Psyker who had been supporting the Vanquisher, Sentinels and Vets and then consolidated 6 inches towards the center of the board to try and eliminate the Guardsmen holding the central objectives... Then My first unit of Jetbikes moved on to the winning objective, with a second unit nearby to pounce once again should the Ogryns come out and mash them.
Turn 6 Imperial Guard- The Ogryns came wheeling out and whiffed horribly against the Jetbikes... killing only 1 of them!? What is this blasphemy?! The same Ogryns who mashed Necron Wraiths into metal filings couldn't take out these pesky Jetbikes? My brother couldn't believe it... This was the only move worth mentioning... despair was at all time high... the Eldar were going to win.
Eldar- Sensing the Imperial's despair my Autarch sought to drive the bitter dagger of defeat into their heart. He made a 6" move and then a 9" charge to clear out a whole squad of Vets in the middle of the board... setting up a further rampage on the 2 remaining Vets who were holding one of my brothers vital objectives. Then to close it out the second unit of Jetbikes moved onto the winning objective... I had 3 out of the 5 objectives plus linebreaker from the Scorpions camping out in my brother's DZ... While my brother had only 2 objectives plus First Blood for taking out the Wave Serpent... it looked like the Eldar had won... until I noticed something. Busting out the measuring tape I carefully checked the distance between the Ogryns my deployment edge... my brother had linebreaker! The game was a tie! The most glorious draw in my history of 40k...
Closing Thoughts- Wow guys what can I say? This was one of the great games I've ever played of 40k... each of us was riveted the whole time... what a back and forth. So happy for my brother that he managed a draw after playing such a great game. It bears mentioning that he placed one of the objectives in my DZ which made the game so hard for him to win. He was thinking he'd be able to keep me pinned back there and get me at range assuming his Wyvern'd be alive at the end of the game... a mistake to be sure... but one he fought like mad to rectify. So glad it didn't lose him the game.
Anyways hope you guys enjoyed. I certainly did! Can't wait for our next match-up... it should be legendary. I might even take the IG + my Dark Angels out for a spin against my own Eldar! Stay tuned there's more to come soon!